How to set up Leads Tracking on Google Ads

Every business that runs lead gen ads must track leads effectively to achieve two important goals:

1. Understand the effectiveness and ROI of their channels and campaigns, and
2. Allow ads to optimize for quality leads by informing ad platforms of conversions.

This guide will focus more on the latter goal and walk you through setting up leads conversion tracking for Google Ads, ensuring that you have the tools in place to track user actions and improve your campaign performance.

Key Takeaways

• Conversion tracking is essential for measuring lead generation effectiveness.
• Google Ads provides multiple methods to track different lead types (phone calls, form submissions, etc.).
• Accurate conversion tracking enables better campaign optimization and smarter budget allocation.

Why Conversion Tracking is Important

Conversion tracking allows you to measure the success of your campaigns by recording when users complete a desired action after interacting with your ads. For businesses focused on lead generation, these actions typically include filling out a contact form, making a phone call, or signing up for a service.

By enabling conversion tracking, you gain insights such as:

• Which ads, keywords, and campaigns are driving leads. Where can you kill the keywords and assets that aren’t driving conversions and replace them with potentially better performing ones.
• The overall cost per lead (CPL). How many leads does it take you to get a sale?  What is your cost per sale compared with your customer lifetime value?
• User behavior post-click.

Without conversion tracking, you’re left guessing which ads or keywords are truly working. This data is essential for refining campaigns to improve ROI.

After the iOS privacy update related to App Tracking Transparency (ATT), reporting conversions back to ad platforms is more important than ever for enabling ads to optimize for those conversions.

For background, Apple made a massive change to its iOS privacy policy in 2021 which reverberated across advertisers and ad platforms. The change gave users more transparency and control over the data they share with an app. With as much as 85-90% of users opting out of data sharing, advertisers could no longer access the data. Targeting became less effective and more expensive. Conversion tracking and pixel features were essentially turned off.

Fast forward to today, where Google and Facebook have adapted and found new ways for advertisers to send conversion events generated from their servers (vs data events collected on the client side or browser), while remaining compliant with ATT.

With less access to overall user data, conversion goals have become an even more important data point for which ad platforms can learn from and optimize audiences and assets against.

Setting Up Leads Conversion Tracking in Google Ads

Here’s a step-by-step process to get started with conversion tracking for lead generation.

Step 1: Log into Google Ads

First, log in to your Google Ads account. You should have administrative privileges for making changes.

Step 2: Navigate to Conversions Section

In the left-hand menu, click on Goals. Then, under the “Conversions” section, click “Summary”.

Step 3: Add a New Conversion Action

Next, click on the blue "+" button to create a new conversion action. You will be prompted to choose the type of conversion you'd like to track. For lead generation, the most common options are:

• Website (for actions like form submissions or newsletter sign-ups).
• Phone Calls (for tracking leads via inbound calls).
• App (if you’re tracking leads within a mobile app).

For this guide, let’s focus on website and phone call tracking, as these are the most common for lead-based businesses.

Tracking Form Submissions (Website Leads)

Form submissions are a common lead source for businesses. Here’s how to set up conversion tracking for website-based leads.

Step 1: Choose “Website” Conversion Action

When prompted to select a conversion type, click on “Website.” This will track any lead that submits a form or takes an action on your website.

You’ll then be prompted to enter your website domain.

Step 2: Define the Conversion

Choose the category “Submit lead form.”

Give your conversion a name, such as “Lead Form Submit” or “Quote Request.”

Next, set the value for the lead. If every lead is worth the same amount, enter a fixed value (e.g., $100 per lead). If leads have different values, you can set up dynamic conversion values based on the lead type. You should set a value greater than $0 if you want to optimize for maximizing conversion value.

Under Count, if you are tracking leads, you’ll only want to count “One” form submission per interaction.

For the remaining details, I kept the default selections:

Then, click Done.

Step 3: Install the Conversion Tracking Tag

Once you are done setting up the conversion details, you’ll need to install the conversion tracking tag.

Google will generate a tracking code, which you need to place on your website. The code comes in two parts:

1. Global site tag (gtag.js): This code should be placed on every page of your website, typically within the <head> section.
2. Event snippet: This code should be added to the specific page that confirms the lead submission, such as the "Thank You" page that appears after someone submits a form.

Under Tag Manager, go to “Use Google Tag Manager” tab.

Then go to Google Tag Manager. If you don’t have an account set up already, go ahead and set that up.  You’ll also need to create a container for your website, if you don’t already.

Then,

Step 4: Test the Tracking

Once installed, test the conversion tracking by filling out a form to ensure the conversion is being recorded in your Google Ads account.

Tracking Phone Call Leads

For many businesses, phone calls are a primary source of leads. Google Ads offers several options to track these phone-based conversions.

Option 1: Call Extensions

If you’re using call extensions (where a phone number appears directly in your ad), Google automatically tracks when users click on the number to make a call.

Option 2: Calls from Your Website

For phone calls made after someone visits your website, set up a website call conversion. Here’s how:

1. Choose “Phone Call” Conversion Action: When creating a new conversion, select “Phone Call.”
2. Select the Call Source: Choose “Calls to a phone number on your website.”
3. Enter Your Phone Number: Provide the phone number displayed on your website that you'd like to track.
4. Install the Tracking Code: Google will generate a tag that allows it to track when users call after clicking your ad and visiting your site. Similar to form submissions, this code needs to be installed on your website.
5. Set Call Duration: Define the minimum duration for a call to count as a conversion (e.g., 30 seconds).

Option 3: Google Forwarding Number

Google can assign a unique forwarding number to your ads. When a user clicks on your phone number from an ad, the call is routed through a Google forwarding number, allowing the call to be tracked. This feature is especially useful for tracking calls made from mobile devices directly from the search results page.

Optimize and Analyze Your Leads Data

Once your conversion tracking is set up, you’ll start collecting data on how users are interacting with your ads and converting into leads. Use this data to:

• Refine Keywords and Ads: Identify which keywords, ads, or ad groups are driving the most leads and adjust bids or ad copy accordingly.
• Adjust Campaign Budgets: Allocate more budget to high-performing campaigns and reduce spend on those that generate few leads.
• Analyze CPL (Cost Per Lead): Keep track of how much you're spending on each lead and compare it against the revenue generated to ensure profitability.

Tell Me More: Real-World Applications of Lead Conversion Tracking

Case Study Example: Imagine a local HVAC company running Google Ads to generate leads. Before setting up conversion tracking, the company knew how many clicks their ads were getting, but not how many leads were being generated. By enabling conversion tracking for phone calls and form submissions, the company can now see that 50% of their leads come from phone calls made directly from the ad, while the other 50% come from form submissions.

With this data, the company can adjust its campaigns, focusing on high-converting keywords for both phone calls and web-based leads. They can also use this information to optimize their landing pages, improving the overall conversion rate and reducing the cost per lead.

Conclusion

Setting up leads conversion tracking in Google Ads is essential for businesses that want to maximize the effectiveness of their ad spend. Whether tracking form submissions, phone calls, or app interactions, the data you collect will help you fine-tune your campaigns, leading to more efficient spending and higher-quality leads. By following the steps outlined above, you'll be well on your way to making data-driven decisions and improving your lead generation strategy in Google Ads.